Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Virginia, is bringing back a long-running right wing tradition by declaring April 2010 “Confederate History Month” — at the request of the neo-Confederate group “Sons of Confederate Veterans,” described by Civil War historian James M. McPherson as a white supremacist organization.

The two previous governors of Virginia (Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine) refused to issue similar proclamations, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans knew they only had to wait until a Republican was in office.